Muslim activists sharing their thoughts on everything from politics to paradise

Sunday, May 18, 2008

New Israeli movie: Waltz with Bashir

The Guardian, May 15th 2008:

Last night at Cannes saw the premiere of a remarkable new Israeli film, Waltz With Bashir. It's a soldier's eye view of the Sabra and Shatila camp killings in 1982 - still one of the most shameful episodes in Israeli history, in which IDF units stood by as Lebanese Christian Phalangists brutally attacked Palestinian civilians. The exact number of deaths is not known, varying between Red Cross estimates of 7-800, and Phalangist claims of 2-3000. The Bashir in the title refers to Bashir Gemayel, the Lebanese president-elect whose murder in 1982 triggered the Phalangists' rampage.

This film is remarkable, for one, in the very that it exists at all: it is a mea culpa, created by someone intimately connected with events. Director (and central figure) Ari Folman doesn't attempt to evade, soft-pedal or make excuses. He presents the film as therapy; his own attempt to recover the blocked memories of what actually happened. In doing so, he himself makes an explicit connection between the death camps Jews had fled in Europe, and the refugee camps in which Palestinians were housed and brutalised in Lebanon. Folman isn't pulling any punches.

Muslamics?

The term Muslamics is a cross between Muslims and Islamics, and makes light of the many erroneous labels placed upon Muslims.

As Muslims living in America, we are part of a daily struggle to define ourselves and forge new identities, at a time when our community, and specifically Muslim activists, are in the limelight. Part of this struggle is to reclaim our language.

We are proud to be Muslims and we believe it is part of our duty to convey to others who we are and what we stand for. Therefore, we will take the name Muslamics - originally used as a derogatory term against Muslims - and expose the ignorance behind it, as well as give it a new and positive meaning.